Girl Crush: Maayan Zilberman

I've thought it would be cool to start a new section introducing some interesting, inspiring, stylish girls. In other words... girl crushes. By the way don't you just love that expression? I think it perfectly describes the instinctive feelings we as girls have for other girls, like when ten minues after having met a girl we are already talking about favourite books or manicures. Or, on the other side, when one nanosecond after being introduced to another girl we just know the more we get to know her, the more we'll dislike her (don't deny it, you know we are all like that).
So, first of all, what constitues girl crush material for me?

Girl crush is:
- Girls who read books.
- Girls who are not afraid of being different to what we are told is "cool".
- Girls who are genuinely creative in their lifes and jobs.
- Girls who are strong, independent and empowered.

Girl crush is not:
- Girls who dress to look like celebrities.
- Girls whose ultimate idol is Carrie Bradshaw (that's not feminine, it's just stupid).
- Girls who just buy and buy and buy stuff.

Anyway, Maayan Zilberman is definitely girl crush material. This adoptive New Yorker is a multi-talented artist who draws, designs and bakes for a living; and each one of her jobs carries the personal brand of her style. Also, as you can see in this video from the amazing website Style Like U, the girl sure knows how to dress in a truly unique way!

Maayan Zilberman for Stylelikeu.com from StyleLikeU on Vimeo.

Maayan has a lingerie brand with friend Nikki Dekker, poetically (and humorously) called The Lake & Stars. Their designs are subtly provocative and sexy in an intellectual sort of way. Graphic elements and colours are striking in all of their pieces, creating intimates which of course can be worn alone day and night, but that can also perfectly complement an outfit. You can find Maayan's brand in Net-a-Porter and Barney's among others.

But compulsively creative Miss Zilberman is also a gifted illustrator (you can see her work in her Tumblr) and has built her own cake company, called WaveCake (check it out here), for which she cooks up a storm of incredible-looking cakes like these:

I think Maayan is great inspiration for anyone wanting to carry out their own creative business and do things their way, stepping out of commonplace ideas and standard styles. I am very much looking forward to seeing what she does next!